*Update 30.10.2025, here’s the promised Contract Agent FAQs [1].*
*Update 29.10.2025: here is the recording [2] and the slides [3].
Original article: Generation 2004 is here again to help you to know the rules that apply to you as a Contract Agents [4] (CAs). We want you to make the best decisions you can with the information available. In the hybrid event below we plan to have around 1.5 hours to address your CA questions. We intend to gather all of your questions to make a Contract Agent frequently asked questions [1] (FAQs) for our website.
Lunchtime event: Contract Agents: key challenges and recent developments
Wednesday, 15 October 2025
12:30-14.00 | Luxembourg, Brussels
There will be a 60 minutes of presentation and then 30 minutes of questions and answers.
If you’re unable to attend, feel free to send us your questions [5]: we’ll include them in our future FAQs!
Here are some of the CA issues we’ve raised recently or we intend to discuss
- Career-progression, even where it is a possibility, presents challenges [6]
- Promotion (‘reclassification [7]‘) speed and function-group reassessment (‘screening [8]‘)
- The changes we want to see: Revisiting GIPS: a route for better conditions for contract agents [9]
- Amendments to the the 7-year rule [10]
- CA staff earning less than officials while doing the same tasks and roles [6]
- non-permanent staff not being allowed to attend final exams for in-house language courses [11]
If you appreciate our work, please consider becoming a member of Generation 2004 [12]
As always, if you have questions, please feel free to contact us [5].
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Contract Agents (CAs) were created by the 2004 staff regulations Reform. There are two types of CA: those with unlimited contracts, 3A [13] (‘indefinite’) and those with time-limited contracts [14], 3B [15]. CAs can belong to 4 different function groups (\'GF\') with different responsibilities and salaries [16].
As the use of contract staff becomes increasingly common, there has been a corresponding increase in the diversity of status and pay of the Commission’s workforce. For example, GFIV contract staff meeting the same minimum recruitment requirements (education and experience) as junior administrators may earn 28 % less. (European Court of Auditors, 2019, Special report no 15/2019 [17]: Implementation of the 2014 staff reform package at the Commission – Big savings but not without consequences for staff, point 61, page 34)
We have a working group dedicated to the dossier, and in December 2012 we addressed the first of many letters (\'notes\') about Contract Agents to Human Resources of all Institutions and agencies [18] (here is the cover e-mail [19]).
As a background you can see the report of the Commission to the Council regarding the recruitment of the contract agents in 2010 [20] (in French, COM(2011)802 final 23.11.2011).
Our articles on Contract Agents [4]
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips39','‘Offices’ is normally used to mean 3 specific services [21]: OIB, OIL and the PMO but not EPSO, the OP or OLAF [21]. Unfortunately, the term is used differently elsewhere, so please always check! The draft Commission budget 2026 [22] (pp. 958-963) uses ‘Offices’ to cover all 6: OIB, OIL, PMO, EPSO, the OP and OLAF as do the General Implementation Provisions (GIP) C(2011)1264 [23].
'); toolTips('.classtoolTips47','Trade union or staff association (OSP) [Organisation syndicale et professionnelle]');